Use Messages with your Mac

Messages is the text-messaging software included with your Mac. Use it to send messages with iMessage, or send SMS and MMS messages through your iPhone.

With Messages for Mac, you can send unlimited messages to any Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that uses iMessage, Apple's secure-messaging service. iPhone owners can use it for SMS and MMS messages, too.

Set up iMessage

iMessage is the Apple messaging service you get automatically with your Apple ID.If it's not already set up, you're asked to sign in when you first open the Messages app. Sign in with same Apple ID that you use with Messages on your iPhone and other devices. It's usually the same Apple ID that you use for iCloud, the iTunes Store, the App Store, and the account you created when you first set up your Mac.

Have a conversation

Click at the top of the Messages window.

Address your message by typing the recipient's name, email address, or phone number. Or click and choose a recipient. If they're in your Contacts app, Messages finds them as you type. To start a group conversation, just add more recipients.

Type your message in the field at the bottom of the window, then press Return to send it.

”Send a message to Susan and Johnny saying I'll be late" or ”Tell Johnny Appleseed the show is about to start” or ”Text a message to 408 555 1212.”

”Read the last message from Brian Park” or ”Read my new messages.”

”Reply that's great news” or ”Tell him I'll be there in 10 minutes.”

Add a Tapback to a message

macOS Sierra introduces Tapback to the Mac. A Tapback is a quick response that expresses what you think about a message, such as that you like it or think it's funny. In the image above, the heart next to ”See you then!" is a Tapback. Here's how to do it:

Control-click a message bubble to open a shortcut menu.

Choose Tapback from the menu.

Click a Tapback to add it to the message bubble.

Your Tapback is visible to everyone in the conversation who is using iMessage with macOS Sierra or later or iOS 10 or later. Other iMessage users see "Liked" or "Laughed at" or "Emphasized," for example, followed by the text of that message.

iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch also have Tapback, as well as other message effects available only on those devices. Most such affects look the same on your Mac when you receive them. Others appear as a description of the effect, such as ”(sent with Loud Effect).”

Send text messages to anyone from your Mac

If you have an iPhone with a text messaging plan, learn how to set up text message forwarding so you can send and receive SMS and MMS messages from your Mac.

Delete a message or conversation

When you permanently delete a message or conversation, you can't get it back. So make sure that you save important information from your messages.

To delete a message:

Open a message conversation.

Control-click the blank area of a message bubble that you want to delete.

Choose Delete.

Click Delete.

To delete a conversation:

Control-click a conversation.

Choose Delete Conversation.

Click Delete.

Learn more

To learn more about Messages, choose Messages Help from the Help menu in Messages.